Spent some time in the library today, reading the first few chapters of Food: The History of Taste. It's partly about taste, with a lot of background in cultural history associated with food, dietary needs, and beliefs or misconceptions about diet. I've really gotten interested in cooking and baking the last couple of years, as well as a little on the science of healthy diets and fad diets, and I find the history of it fascinating.

The first chapter was about pre-history food habits and the resources available to make guesses at diet. Stuff like remnants in clay jars, scratches and marks on bones of animals, chemical traces in human skeletons, and studies of still-existing hunter-gatherer tribes. I learned that if you are a carnivore and only eat lean meat, you can starve and have other health complications because your body can't digest it properly. Pre-homo sapiens learned to cook their food, which aids in digestion. Extra fat and grease can also help with digestive issues, if you're starving and malnourished. They also have evidence that early pre-humans were more like scavengers than hunters, eating meat left behind by larger predators and likely a bit rotten by modern standards; they have found animal bones that have tool cuttings overlaid on claw and animal tooth marks.

The second chapter was about Greek and Roman food, citing literary resources such as Homer and the writings of the philosophers. It was a fad for the Romans to write letters to friends describing an elegant feast for a friend who wasn't able to attend. There were published collections of these letters that were popular works. The Greeks loved the meat from four-legged domesticated animals and did not much like fish for feasting, despite living on the coast and having access to plenty of seafood. The sacrifices to the gods described in The Iliad and The Oddyssey involved domesticated animals, not animals caught in the hunt.

The pictures from the forest fires out in California are amazing. Those firefighters are really hardcore. That's dangerous, difficult work. Even with my experience I can't really imagine it. The scale of the destruction is shocking and awful.

Amazon is having a "World Music Festival" and offering lots of free sample mp3 albums on their site. Some of it is pretty cool. If you're looking for something different or unusual, I'd recommend it.

I went on there to pay for one album (an instrumental bluegrass collection, Foggy Hogtown Boys - Pigtown Fling) and got about 20 free albums to try out. Cool.

I'd planned to methodically and slowly clean and organize the house while Justin's been in Vermont working with his dad. I had two weeks to do it.

Yeah, that totally didn't happen. I came home tonight after work and started frantically cleaning the house. It's much improved now, though, and I even got an extension - he won't be here until tomorrow afterall.

I guess I'd better do an extra good job with the extra time. :D

(And not play Mount & Blade at all....)

I have been reading a lot lately. I slowly fell out of the habit for a little while, but I have been reading more and more in the last 6 months or so. I missed reading. It's nice.

I delved into the Honor Harrington series, and got through the first three books in a row. They're fun, quick reads. The anticipation of the space battles pulls me through them fast, even though I know it's going to turn out okay for Honor every time. I've told several people that if I had read these when I was in high school, they could very easily have taken over the brain real estate I used for the Star Wars expanded universe novels. As an older reader, I sometimes want to groan at the turns the story takes, but it still sucks me in.

I got partway into The Court of the Air, a steampunk book I picked up in Vermont at the Northshire Book Store. It looked fun, and I thought, after scanning the cover and the insides, that it was a standalone book. This appealed to me after reading so much Honor, but I got about 150 pages in when I looked it up on the internet, and it is a series afterall. At the outset, I liked the world and the feel of it. It promised lots of later secrets to be revealed, and kept the pacing interesting. However, as I go further in, it starts to feel like the author was so wowed by his own world that he got distracted and followed every shiny creation he could come up with. It was cool enough to me that it was steampunk, but then it started to feel like a crazy anime where the world was being revealed at such a fast pace that there would be no internal consistency because I'd never be able to learn the rules. I'm waiting for the walking volcano to show up. This book is on pause for me. I'll get back to it eventually?

Instead I picked up Lament by Maggie Stiefvater, and I loved it. I've had the author on my friends list for a few months now because I like the way she writes about life and writing, but I hadn't read her novels until now. I'll probably pick up her other books pretty quick. I don't generally enjoy faerie stories, especially modern-times ones, but I like her writing style, the feel of the book, and I really liked the main character. I finished it last night when I should have been asleep, but I wanted to know how it ended. Not entirely sure I liked the ending, and I'm still digesting it, but I liked it.

I just started an audiobook version of The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho this afternoon while I was counting cars for work. It has all the solid, inescapable plotting of an old tale. It asks good questions, and it makes my skin crawl just a bit. I want it to end well, but I believe it will end badly.

I'm not sure what to read next. Anyone reading anything good?

• Post ten of any pictures currently on your hard drive that you think are self-expressive.
• NO CAPTIONS!!! It must be like we're speaking with images and we have to interpret your visual language just like we have to interpret your words.
• They must ALREADY be on your hard drive - no googling or flickr! They have to have been saved to your folders sometime in the past. They must be something you've saved there because it resonated with you for some reason.
• You do NOT have to answer any questions about any of your pictures if you don't want to. You can make them as mysterious as you like. Or you can explain them away as much as you like.
( Read more... )

Last night, I was sewing a pair of simple pants and somehow attached the pocket to the ankle.

I know how to sew, really. There's just something about pockets...

I acquired King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking: Delicious Recipes Using Nutritious Whole Grains cookbook this week.

The recipes in it make me want to stay home all weekend and bake. So far it seems pretty comprehensive as far as information about whole grains and how they bake differently from white flour, which is good. It's also not a diet cookbook - just a book of recipes that use different flours. It was printed in Vermont, too, so Justin approves. ;)

I'm curious to see how this works out, because all I have experience with is the Sparkpeople advice to substitute half wheat, half white flour with regular recipes. This appears to be really tailored to the whole grains instead of ways to make regular recipes healthier.

Right now I have pumpkin bread in the oven. It's a very thick batter, much thicker than the recipe I am used to. It smells good, though!

If my computer hadn't told me the correct time yesterday I would never have known I needed to reset all the other clocks.

Today I am completely wide awake an hour early, despite going to bed at the correctly shifted bedtime. It almost never happens that I am quick to rise on Mondays, but I would have nailed it perfectly today except for the time shift. Instead, I am an hour early.

I made myself some tea and I am putzing around on the internet. It's not so bad being awake and relaxed before the commute instead of sleeping and stressed. I have a lot to do today, anyway, since I will be going out of town tomorrow for work-related class and not return until Thursday night.

I get to drive around a lot for work, and this summer I passed a place with a giant field of sunflowers stretching as far back into the foreground as I could see from the road. They were all in bloom and bright, and it reminded me of postcards and calendar shots I've seen.

Today I drove past it again, and all the sunflowers are brown and withered, their faces pointing downward at forty-five degrees. The effect of them all, dead, stretching away in their rows until framed by the background of red and yellow hills, is a little melancholy, and unlike anything I've seen before.

We have a new TV which works awesome as a monitor for the snazzy computer Adam outfitted for me in February. Oblivion looks awesome in 32" widescreen. The internet is fun from the couch. But I have been wondering if I could actually do work on it from here, or if my computer was turning into a gaming console and Netflix instant viewer. I'm attempting it now, feet up on the trunk, listening to the slightly sappy emo/punk music that Justin objects to. I guess it's not so bad as a work machine when no one else is here. Cool.

So, on a whim I updated my classmates.com bio after they sent me an e-mail a few weeks ago. Since then I have miraculously gotten three signatures in the guestbook there. Of course, this being Classmates, they send you messages to tell you something was posted, but lock everything unless you pay them a fee to see what people sent you.

This is very annoying.

I don't think I'll update that thing again.

Privilege meme

Bold all that are true for you.

Father went to college
Father finished college
Mother went to college
Mother finished college
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
Were read children's books by a parent
Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
Went to a private high school
Went to summer camp
Had a private tutor before you turned 18
Family vacations involved staying at hotels
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
There was original art in your house when you were a child
Had a phone in your room before you turned 18
You and your family lived in a single family house
Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
You had your own room as a child
Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course (this was through my high school and only cost $20, though)
Had your own TV in your room in High School
Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
Went on a cruise with your family
Went on more than one cruise with your family
Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family

I experimented with making homemade granola. This came out really good the second time I made it. Make sure you don't bake for more than 40 minutes - while it didn't exactly burn, it definitely doesn't taste as good. Also, I added approximately 3/4 cup chopped walnuts, 3/4 cup mixed dried fruit, and 3/4 cup sunflower seeds to the second batch, and it was very tasty.

Ingredients:

4 cups old-fashioned oats (aka rolled oats)
1 1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup raisins or dried cranberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 F. In a bowl mix the oats, almonds, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon. In a saucepan warm the oil and honey. Whisk in vanilla.

Carefully pour the liquid over the oat mixture. Stir gently with a wooden spoon; finish mixing by hand. Spread granola in a 15x10 inch baking pan.

Bake 40 minutes, stirring carefully every 10 minutes. Transfer granola-filled pan to a rack to cool completely. Stir in raisins or cranberries. Seal granola in an airtight container or self-sealing plastic bag. Store at room temperature for 1 week or in the freezer for 3 months.


Taken from: http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/146/Homemade_Granola38838.shtml

NaNoWriMo Day 1 - 1,078 words.

Here we go again.

Yay! It's true:

http://www.starcraft2.com

So now I'm a quarter-century old. How about that?

Time does fly.

Hey - we made CNN! (Thanks, stemplehair.)


OSWEGO, New York (AP) -- While the northern Plains and Northeast shiver in dangerously cold temperatures, the folks in upstate New York are keeping warm shoveling snow -- lots of snow.

Since Sunday, the small towns of Parish and Mexico have recorded more than 6 feet of snow, and forecasters with the National Weather Service say it isn't over yet.

Another 2 feet or more of heavy lake-effect snow was expected Thursday for the communities along eastern Lake Ontario, and more squalls are likely through the weekend.

"We're just trying to keep up. It's almost an unreal amount," said Mayor Randy Bateman of Oswego, where 70 inches of snow had fallen by Thursday morning. "We catch up when it stops, but then it just comes again, even heavier."

Five inches per hour

Whiteout conditions -- the snow has been falling at a rate of 5 inches an hour at times -- forced state police to temporarily close Interstate 81 between Central Square and Pulaski, a stretch of about 15 miles.

Travel advisories against unnecessary travel were posted for Oswego and its neighboring counties. Mexico officials renewed a snow emergency declaration, and many government offices were closed.

Schools were closed for a fourth day in Oswego and Mexico.

In West Virginia, where as much as 9 inches of snow has fallen, some schools that had been closed were able to reopen on Thursday, but in most of the state, classes were still delayed, and in a few counties, cancelled. Officials had to call snowplow drivers out of retirement Wednesday to clear the roads.

The weather also disrupted travelers, leaving some stranded overnight in airports in the Midwest after flights to the Northeast were disrupted.

Temperatures in the Northeast were inching back up to something closer to normal for this time of year, but the upper Midwest and northern Plains still awoke to subzero temperatures Thursday -- minus-12 in Minneapolis and 3 below zero in Chicago.

Twenty deaths blamed on cold

The bitter cold and slippery roads have contributed to at least 20 deaths -- five in Ohio, four in Illinois, four in Indiana, two in Kentucky, two in Michigan, and one each in Wisconsin, New York and Maryland, authorities said. Three of them died Tuesday when two SUVs crashed on a slick road in northern Indiana. An autopsy Wednesday determined that an elderly woman found in a New York City building had died of hypothermia.

In Oswego, a big concern was keeping the city's 800 fire hydrants clear, said Fire Chief Ed Geers.

"We're just trying to keep on top of digging out the hydrants. When you get 5 feet of snow in 24 hours, it's tough," Geers said.

Snow will fall at the rate of at least 2 to 3 inches per hour
within the band later this afternoon through Thursday afternoon...
so areas where the band persists will see additional
accumulations by Thursday afternoon of one to three feet...
especially over northern sections. This may bring the five day
storm total to over 100 inches in some spots.


I think I'm starting to get cabin fever.

I really wanted to go to work today. There was only a fresh 6 or 8 inches on the driveway this morning, light powdery stuff, and it wasn't snowing. I shoveled a big patch of snow out of the front of my car, started it, and was cleaning it off when Justin came out to tell my I had a call from my carpool buddy that's we'd be going in late, if at all. I went back to bed. He's the native Oswego guy, so I figured if he didn't want to drive, I didn't want to go without him. At 8:30 he decided not to chance it. That band of snow that went south last night is supposed to double back today.

I looked at pictures online of the campus, showing snow drifts so high that you could just see the tops of the cars in the parking lots. Justin asked if I'd drive him to campus and drop him off. Our neighbor got her car stuck in the driveway trying to get out, so we left late and drove slow. Rt 104 is nasty, and the side roads are worse. There was an accident on 104 right near the turn to the apartment, and the cop redirecting everyone around the scene looked disgusted to see so many people out driving.

I'm really glad I didn't try to go to work, because around 9:45 or 10am it started snowing again. I stopped two places on the way home, for no more than 15 minutes each, and my car was covered. Just with the gap between brushing and getting back into the car, the rear window got so covered I couldn't see to back out. In the driveway, trying to back into my parking spot, I had to stop and brush the back window three times while maneuvering.

My boss is being nice about it. He told me we made the front page of the Post Standard for the snow, and everyone understands, and work is light right now anyway. It's just that I am taking vacation time to stay home, and snow shoveling isn't exactly my idea of a vacation!